Émilie Boulard (born 23 August, 1999) is a French rugby union player who plays for the France women's national rugby union team as a full-back. She won the International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year at the 2021 World Rugby Awards.

Career

Boulard began her club rugby aged 18 playing for RC Chilly-Mazarin. She won her first senior cap in April 2021 against Wales in the Women's Six Nations Championship. In doing so she became the first Chilly-Mazarin player ever to be selected to play for France. She subsequently won the International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year at the 2021 World Rugby Awards, for a try she scored in her debut game against Wales. In September 2022 She was one of three players nominated for the award for the best French international for the 2021-2022 season, with the award ultimately going to Laure Sansus. It was also announced Boulard would be joining

Blagnac SCR Blagnac Rugby, previously known as Blagnac Sporting Club Rugby and commonly known as Blagnac, is a French rugby union team that currently takes part in Nationale, the third-tier of the countries rugby system. The club is currently attempting to ma ...

for the following season. She was named in France's team for the delayed

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

in New Zealand. Emilie Boulard started as France became the first team to reach the semi-finals with a 39-3 win over Italy. Boulard described the 25-24 defeat to New Zealand in the semi-final as “the worst defeat of my career and the most painful… The days following this semi-final were very difficult. There were regrets and guilt. We redid all our actions, saying to ourselves "if I had done such and such a thing, we could have made it to the final... When we see the final and our performance in the match for third place, we say to ourselves that there was room to win this title and be world champions. We didn't do it on this World Cup, we will do it on the next ones.” In December 2022 Boulard made a try-scoring home debut for Blagnac in the

Élite 1 Élite 1 (since 2018, and previously Top 8 from 2015 to 2018) is the top national league for women's rugby union clubs in France. It was founded from the 1971–1972 season under the aegis of the French Women's Rugby Association before being taken ...

competition against FC Grenoble at the Ernest-Argelès stadium. She was named in France's squad for the

2023 Women's Six Nations Championship The 2023 Women's Six Nations Championship, known as the TikTok Women's Six Nations for marketing purposes, was the 22nd series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between England, France, Ireland, It ...

References

1999 births Living people French female rugby union players France women's international rugby union players {{France-rugbyunion-bio-stub